Murray: 'Some things slipped through the cracks'

Saturday

Aug 31, 2013 at 6:53 AMAug 31, 2013 at 6:57 AM

By John J. Monahan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Former Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray on Friday acknowledged mistakes in overseeing his campaign fundraising, but blamed an estimated $5O,OOO in illegal fundraising uncovered in an 18-month investigation by the attorney general on errant addresses put on fundraiser invitations by his campaign staff. He also continued to place blame on former Chelsea Housing Director Michael E. McLaughlin, who he said misled him about fundraising activities.

'Unfortunately some things slipped through the cracks with a bad character,' Mr. Murray said, referring to Mr. McLaughlin, who was indicted Thursday on 12 counts of illegal fundraising for Mr. Murray's campaign organization since 2008.

Mr. McLaughlin was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison earlier this year for lying about and mis-reporting his $360,000 a year salary.

Mr. Murray said alleged illegal fundraising involving E. Bernard Plante a state Department of Transportation supervisor who is also chairman of the Millbury Board of Selectmen occurred because wrong addresses were mistakenly put on boxes ofinvitations sent to Mr. Plante's home for at least two fundraisers in Worcester while Mr. Murray was running for re-election.

A settlement agreement with the attorney general's office signed by Mr. Murray concludes that Mr. Murray failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent unlawful fundraising, and Mr. Murray said he accepts responsibility for that. Moreover, he said he can only hope other candidates learn from those mistakes. He has agreed to forfeit $5O,OOO from his campaign account to the state, pay an additional $2O,OOO fine from campaign funds, and a $1O,OOO personal fine as part of the settlement.

While the investigation identified an estimated $5O,OOO in unlawful contributions, Mr. Murray said since he began running for statewide office in 2OO6, his campaign raised over $10 million and only a small percentage about 2 percent or less came from state employees.

Questions about Mr. McLaughlin's fundraising for the campaign have been widely reported in the months leading up to Mr. Murray's decisions earlier this year not to run for governor and then to step down as lieutenant governor, to become president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. But alleged unlawful fundraising linked to the DOT supervisor uncovered in the investigation was not publicly known until the settlement was announced Thursday. The investigation found that the Murray campaign 'received contributions resulting from illegal fundraising by a public employee in connection with three fundraising events held in the Worcester area,' on May 8, 2OO8, May 14, 2OO9 and May 27, 2O1O. It found that in advance of the 2OO9 and2O1Oevents, whichdrewnumerous contributions from DOT employees, boxes of invitation promoting the events were sent to Mr. Plante by Federal Express by the Murray Committee. The investigation found that Mr. Plante's son, who was working for the Murray campaign raising funds, and the committee sent the invitations to the senior Mr. Plante, a DOT supervisor, at his Millbury home.

The settlement agreement states, 'This DOT supervisor directly and indirectly solicited numerous persons for contributions and received contributions in connection with the Worcester events. Those persons included numerous DOT employees as well as other individuals.'

It further states that Mr. Murray should have known Mr. Plante was not allowed to be involved in soliciting campaign funds. Mr. Murray has contended that the invitations were sent to Mr. Plante by mistake, as his address was mixed up with his son's address by campaign workers.

State transportation officials said Friday they were reviewing the investigation's findings and had yet to determine whether any action may be taken against Mr. Plante, who as a state employee is barred from soliciting or collecting campaign funds by law. The attorney general has not brought any charges against him. Mr. Murray said he is relieved that the investigation is over and acknowledged the challenge of overseeing expansive statewide fundraising, noting the alleged unlawful activity occurred even though he hired a nationally known campaign treasurer and experienced fundraising compliance consultant.

'I moved from being mayor and having four or five fundraisers a year to running statewide with 80 to 120 events every year,' Mr. Murray said. And while he attended the events involved in the investigation himself, he said he often did not know most of the people attending and did not personally arrange them. 'You come into them and give a speech. You are in and out and it's hard to know everyone that is there,' he said, although he usually spent some time shaking hands and greeting people at the fundraisers.

He said he hopes people will view the fundraising issue in the context of all he did while serving as lieutenant governor to help people and solve problems.

'I think most people are fair and will judge a person on their body of work,' he said. The board of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce on Friday voiced its support for Mr. Murray. In an email to members, Richard P. Burke, chairman of the chamber's board of directors, said Mr. Murray has been open and forthcoming about the investigation into his fundraising activities since he was approached about taking the top job at the chamber.

'We are confident that Tim will continue to provide the energy and focused leadership to move the chamber forward, and he has the full support of the executive committee in helping the chamber achieve our goals,' Mr. Burke said.

Mr. Murray said support from people who know him in his hometown has been very helpful while he dealt with the investigation.

'Support from people from Central Mass, and Worcester have kept me and my family going through this long and difficult process,' he said.

'It's good to be home.'

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